INTRODUCE THE CHAOS THEORY

Edward Lorenz was first to show empirical evidence of Chaos Theory.

"Lorenz had obviously made an immense breakthrough in not only chaos theory, but life. Lorenz had proved that complex, dynamical systems show order, but they never repeat. Since our world is classified as a dynamical, complex system, our lives, our weather, and our experiences will never repeat; however, they should form patterns."

http://www.duke.edu/~mjd/chaos/chaosp.html

I believe without fail that chaos theory as described here applies perfectly to process of how visitors reach your website. Patterns will emerge, but process will never repeat itself.

Sure some people will follow same link through same ad, but process by which people reach particular link will never duplicate itself.

ONLINE MARKETING WOULD BE EASY IF...

If only you could see what was in mind of Internet surfer when he or she visited your website or purchased your wares, then marketing game would be so much easier.

If only you could see path that customer followed to reach your website --- reaching ten or fifteen pages backwards in time --- then it would be easier to duplicate successes that have come your way.

If you could truly understand environmental variables that were required to bring traffic and convert your traffic to sales, then you would not need to be reading this article right now. Instead, your name might be Midas and all that you touched would turn into gold.

THE PLAIN TRUTH

As mere human beings, we do not have a Midas touch. We cannot possibly understand all of nuances and variables required to bring traffic to our domains and to turn our traffic into sales.

If anyone tries to tell you differently, run far, far away, fast.

The best we can hope for is to recognize certain patterns in our traffic and our sales, and then to utilize that knowledge to increase our traffic and sales.

COMING FULL CIRCLE

If we can begin to understand patterns that people use to find our website and to make purchases of our products and services, then we will better understand which "brain food" to lay out for our target marketplace.

When all else fails, lay out hundreds or thousands of pieces of "brain food" for your visitors to utilize to reach your site. And utilize sales copy for each visitor based on kind of "brain food" crumbs that you have laid out to help your visitors to find you.

I wish you best of luck in your continuing quest for traffic and sales.

John Calder is the owner/editor of The Ezine Dot Net. Subscribe Today and get real information YOU can use to help build your online business today! http://www.TheEzine.Net

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Log File Method Step-by-Step (from bottom of file towards top):

1.You begin scanning log file for URL of your form's confirmation page...once found, you know that a visitor as submitted your form. (Hint: Use wordpad or notepad's Find feature) 2.Write down visitor's IP Address. Then write down all pages (URLs) that were visited by this IP address (You may want to reorder them from first to last afterwards so you can see path each target visitor took through your site from beginning to end.) 3.Write down Entry page and Exit page (first and last page associated with visitor's IP address) 4.The first entry may have referrer information (if your web server is set up to log this information). The referrer URL will tell you how visitor found your web site (including search engine and keyword information.) 5.If user came from a search engine, write down which search engine and which key phrases he/she used to find site. 6.Repeat steps 1 through 5 for each target visitor

Issues with Log File Method The method above has a few flaws. The most notable is that majority of visitors don't fill out a form on their first visit. While this doesn't sound like a big deal, it is important to capture original referrer, search engine, and key phrases visitor used. This can't be accomplished unless visitor performs your desired action on their first visit (using log file method).

Moreover, it is difficult to track a prospect's visit history since many Internet users get their IP Addresses assigned dynamically. So even if you go through several months of log files, you may not be able to locate a visitor's initial visit. The best option is to use cookies to track visit history.

However, there are more sophisticated options available, but generally come with a higher price than $0 like log file method discussed above.

Is There a Better Alternative for Tracking Target Visitors Individually? It may be worthwhile to review products such as WebTrends Reporting Series 6.1. Even if it doesn't meet your needs, similar products may start hitting market soon.

You may also consider identifying a set of requirements and features that would provide maximum benefit for your organization (and/or clients), and having a professional development firm build your solution.

POSITIVE POSITIONING hired a firm by name of 360 IMPACT (a partner firm based in Europe) to build a Visitor Tracking System (VTS) for our needs. The system tracks each of our client's site visitors in real-time. As soon as a visitor hits one of our client's sites, system recognizes the:

·Current and original referrer URL ·Current and original Search engines used ·Current and original key phrases visitor used ·Current and original path through site ·Visitor's IP address ·Visitor type (General/Target Visitor) ·Number of times they visited ·Original and current date and time of their session ·Date and time of original and current visit ·Date and time of visitor's last update ·Conversion data (like inquiry or shopping cart details) ·And more

The VTS attaches all of above information to inquiry/checkout form results allowing our clients get these details in their email along with their form data.

The system we had built automatically distinguishes target visitors from general visitors and provides conversion reports showing us exactly where we should be focusing our SEO investment. What's more, it doesn't require programming, script, or include files in any of our client's pages.

When evaluating a potential system like this, be sure client-side code doesn't reduce performance, or otherwise hurt your SEO efforts.

Put this Information to Work and Watch Your Leads (and/or Sales) grow You will need to track a minimum of 30 to 50 target visitors in order to see a real pattern emerging. Once you have a good amount of data, you will see which referrers are sending most "Target Visitors", which key phrases your best prospects tend to use, optimal path(s) through your site (that often ends in a visitor performing your desired action.)

Let me stress that while log analysis software and other reporting packages do a good job at reporting general traffic patterns, total referrers and key phrases; our focus is on "Target Visitor" statistics exclusively.

Now you are able to re-optimize your SEO campaign to focus on "Target Visitor" attracting key phrases (and bids,) adjust your site to make optimal path(s) easier to follow, and focus more attention on referring sites that generate leads and/or sales.

Tell Us How it Worked For You Once you give this method a shot, you should see increased conversions within 60 days. Please send us an email to let us know how it improved your numbers, or share your thoughts. (End of Part 2 - 904 words including titles)